The Sindarian court was overrun with Li's loyal followers. Those still loyal to King Sana had been pushed out from their positions and anyone who dared to speculate about the details of the late King's demise was swiftly dealt with. Yet still, the citizens were none the wiser of the corruption that took root right under their noses.
"We've helped you suppress would-be usurpers who doubted your claim to the throne. How much progress have you made in weakening Solaria?" Gwynevere stood before Li, not bothering to mask her clear irritation.
Sitting atop her throne, Li looked down at the High Council and rolled her eyes. "Are you lot always this impatient? I can see why Illya never liked you."
"That wench didn't know her place," spat Gwynevere. " We had a deal. In exchange for getting rid of everyone who doubted this story you've spun to hide the truth of King Sana's death, you would get rid of the rest of Illya's family so we could move in and take control of Solaria. We've held up our end of the bargain so tell me why there has been so little progress on your side?"
Li's expression darkened. If she was being honest she had only made that deal with them to lessen the workload on her end. She believed that with Illya out of the way, it would be fairly easy to overpower the remaining Solarian forces. Unfortunately for her, as inexperienced as he was, Sin proved to be a rather capable Emperor. Each attack thrown their way had been thwarted, but of course, they couldn't counter everything. With her runes spread all across the land, it was only a matter of time before they crumbled.
Li relaxed into her throne, knowing that she had all the time in the world when suddenly Illya's words rung in her head.
"You hoped that you could go back to the time before you realized what it meant to betray your God—"
With a scowl, she recalled her life in Aruma An. She was a promising mage and even more capable swordsman, but all of that potential was ripped from her hands the moment King Iago decided to use her to keep an eye on Salem. Her fingers absentmindedly reached beneath her sleeves and traced the faded remnants of a mark on her wrist. Before she had been sent to Salem, the King had cursed her. If she betrayed him, the curse would activate and kill her.
Luckily for her, failing to stop Salem from killing him wasn't an outright act of betrayal and so she was spared. Maybe part of her wanted him dead, to be free of his tyranny. With the spell caster gone, the curse ran wild and poisoned her in other ways. It convinced her to avenge him, to destroy that which escaped his grasp and so she did, but when the dust settled and the battle was over she once again found herself at a dead end. It was when she was writhing in pain as the mark on her wrist ate away at her each night that she came up with the bright idea to resurrect Iago so that he could free her from her suffering.
When a young Sana came in search of a witch to lend him power so he could defend his homeland, she seized the opportunity and linked their shi. Slowly but surely, Iago's corruption consumed Sana until Li could no longer hear him telling her to take revenge and all she had to worry about was getting the curse mark off of her hand. Had she known that he would have spat in the face of her loyalty and thrown her away the second she lost her root shi, she would never have gone through the trouble of cultivating his possession of Sana.
In an unexpected bout of luck, the moment Illya ripped her root shi out a strange sense of relief filled her and when she turned her blades towards Iago and slaughtered him the curse's effects targeted Illya who was now in possession of the very thing that tethered that blasted curse to Li. Fortunately for her, it weakened Illya even further and opened the doors for Li to spin her lies without resistance.
Now with the big players out of the way, she was determined to expand her reign. She consoled herself by reminding herself that soon she would be able to achieve what she could not in Aruma An.
"Don't forget witch! It was us that made Illya disappear. Should you fail to make good on your end of the deal, we have no qualms about doing the same to you."
Li couldn't help but chuckle at Gwynevere's weak threat. "Oh is that right?" She stood and began making her way over to Gwynevere. "I heard that you only managed that by chance though. Had you not gotten word of that asylum and locked her in it I'm sure she would have slaughtered you like pigs while you wasted time trying to figure out what to do with her."
Satisfaction rose in Li's chest as Gwynevere glared at Favian and Anduran, cursing whichever one of them told Li of how they were able to rid themselves of Illya. Li scoffed. While the High Council threw around their perceived power, she would continue to do whatever she wanted. Fortunately, her fabricated series of events had spread far among Sindarian allies. A great number of people held strong resentment towards Illya and Solaria for killing Sana. Li smiled to herself. All she had to do was fan the flames of deceit until the smoke suffocated what was left of Illya's forces.
"Worry not. Solaria shall crumble beneath the weight of their failures. As for when, well you needn't concern yourself with that. Nobody can resist the inevitable."
That's right. All she had to do was bide her time. After all, their fate was sealed the moment Illya resigned to hers.98Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLzSN5eyRep
